An optically active quinuclidinol (e.g. 3-quinuclidinol) is an important intermediate for physiologically active or pharmacologically active components (such as medicines). For the production of an optically active 3-quinuclidinol, there are known processes such as a process which comprises acylating and optically resolving a racemic modification as a starting material with a subtilisin protease (U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,918 A), a process which comprises reducing the starting material imine, which is prepared from a 3-quinuclidinone and an optically active phenethylamine, with the use of a sodium borohydrate (Synth. Commun. (1992), 22(13), 1895-911), a process which comprises hydrolyzing an acetylated racemic modification after resolving with a tartaric acid (Acta Pharm. Suec. (1979), 16(4), 281-3) and a process which comprises optically resolving a racemic form of butyl ester as a starting material with the use of an esterase of horse blood serum (Life Sci. (1977), 21 (9), 1293-302).
These methods, however, have difficulty in producing an optically active quinuclidinol (e.g. 3-quinuclidinol) with commercial advantages in simple and easy manner. Moreover, the efficient production of an optically active quinuclidinol using asymmetric reduction by a microorganism and enzyme has never been reported.